Hello, October

Hello, October. We’re ready for the days to become cooler with clear azure skies and crispy jewelled toned leaves underfoot. We’re ready for apples in everything; pies, jams, salads and sitting alongside an afternoon cheese and cracker plate. 

We’re ready for Saturday strolls in the park, seeing where our feet take us. Perching by the lake to watch the world unfold in front of us. We’re ready for Halloween at the end of the month and the tricks, treats, broomsticks, moonbeams and goblins that it will bring. 

We’re ready for our menu to move into a more autumnal range. Squashes are slowing arriving at the greengrocers. So soon butternut squash soup served alongside hunks of crusty bread will be gracing our table. We’re ready for my Mom’s pork with sauerkraut and apples alongside heaps of freshly whipped potatoes. We’re ready for hot apple cider for dessert with homemade gingerbread cookies.

We’re ready to move more into this season of Autumn while making ensuring that we continue to keep a steady pace; that we continue to drink in all that you have to offer. Welcome, October. Bring us magic. 

{Ideals Magazine, Halloween, 1965 | Pinned HERE}

Hello, September

Hello, September. We’re ready for you to slowly guide Autumn in as she greets us with a crown of wheat and jewel coloured leaves. We’re ready to continue our pace of Summer, we’re not quite ready for tomorrow to bring us our first official back-to-school day. 

We’re still ready to relish in the late Summer bounty of heirloom tomatoes, fresh corn and yellow squash. We’re ready for slightly cooler days mixed with sunshine. We’re ready for the magic that the air holds as we make the transition into Autumn. Apples are already hanging heavy on boughs. 

We’re sad to wave goodbye to this Summer. It’s been full, it’s been fun, it’s been what we needed, but we feel we’re just truly hitting our stride and we’ll be sorry to head back into the hustle and bustle of a new school year. But all chapters must come to a close, so new chapters may begin. 

Welcome, September. We hope you hold all good things. 

Late Summer

It’s late August. The summer is coming to a close and yet I feel we’re just getting started. We’re hungry for more time together, more late nights, the endless rounds of UNO, staying up late to watch old movies. 

The rambling morning strolls. The unexpected afternoon run for an ice cream cone. The days bleeding into the next, the point where you’re so in the groove of being, you have to think what day of the week it is. 

Splitting PB&J sandwiches for lunch before we play another round of a card game or put a puzzle piece in. The simple act of being and letting stillness wash over us, calming and soothing. Like the feel of cool wash cloth gently wiped over your face when you’ve been sick. 

The hot days, the slightly cooler days. The tug-of-war that is slowly beginning with the seasons, will Summer or Autumn pull harder on their side first? The berries really coming in to their own and the luck of snatching a few off the bushes before the birds devour them all. 

HELLO, August

Hello, August. We’re ready for the days to slowly stretch out in front of us, as we move more fully into our school summer break. We’re ready for days spent reading on the beach, listening to the waves roll the pebbles along the strand as it comes into shore.

We’re ready for ice cream for dinner during this mini heatwave and to eat our weight in tomato sandwiches with salty potato chips on the side. The heirloom tomatoes are really starting to come into the greengrocers and they taste divine. We’re ready to split PB&Js for lunch while watching an old re-run of “Bewitched”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or a great “The Brady Bunch” episode. 

We’re ready to have movie dates with our projector and our vintage 1960s screen. To munch on popcorn while watching a good summertime classic and being perfectly content. 

We’re ready to continue to enjoy our time together, relishing the quiet moments and the kitchen dances and the happiness that comes from sitting next to one of your favourite people. 

Welcome, August. Please, bring us all good things. 

{Image:1951 | Santa Barbara, California | “Lana Turner lunching by pool at the Coral Casino.” | Photo by Earl Theisen for Look magazine. | Found via Shorpy | Pinned HERE}

HELLO, July

Hello, July! We’re ready for you to usher in the last month of the school year and bring us one step closer to being able to beat to our own rhythm for a little while with no set schedules. 

We’re ready for our annual Fourth of July celebrations with hamburgers and my Nana’s macaroni salad and homemade hot fudge sundaes for dessert while we watch “JAWS” in the dark. 

We’re ready for our Christmas in July celebrations and the festivities that surround that. A Christmas menu with a summer twist, Christmas movies, Christmas music and we are still deciding on the Christmas dessert menu for this year! 

We’re already eating our weight in your summer fruit bounty, but we haven’t yet had the perfect tomato sandwich, so that is still to come. We’re ready to bake pies out of all the fruit we can’t manage to eat in time with heaps of vanilla ice cream on top. 

We’re ready for our days to stretch out ahead of us where we simply read books and stack the record player and listen to music. We’re ready to continue dancing in the kitchen long after the sun has set and relish in our late night movie dates, while the curtains dance in the breeze from the open windows behind us.

Welcome, July! We’re ready for all that you bring! 

{Keep Your Cool, Slim Aarons, 1978 | “Carmen Alvarez enjoying a game of backgammon with Frank ‘Brandy’ Brandstetter in a swimming pool at Acapulco.” | Pinned HERE}

HELLO, June

Hello, June. We’re ready for warmer days and sunny strolls through the park. We’re ready for the adventures we have planned this month and the chance to squeeze in a few more. 

We’re ready for our first BLT of the season as the heirloom tomatoes start to arrive at the greengrocers. Sandwiches piled high and a side of salty potato chips to go with it. We’re ready to blast Carly Simon while we work together in the kitchen with the windows open and the ocean breeze blowing in. 

We’re ready for late weekend nights watching old movies on our vintage projection screen. We’re ready for lazy weekends that involve long walks and milkshakes. We’re ready for slices of homemade poundcake piled high with fresh picked strawberries and scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

We’re ready for you to bring us into the final stretch of the school year. We’re ready for quiet nights with star filled skies, letting evening settle over the house and taking the time to drink everything in.

We’re ready for all that you bring us this month. Welcome, June! 

{1960s Summer Fashion | Pinned HERE}

Twenty

I adore old movies. I loved nothing more than staying home from school, sick on the couch and watching old movies on TV. One of my all time favourites is a Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda classic called, “Yours, Mine & Ours”. It’s a coming together of two families and how they learn to become one. Near the end of the film, in trying to get a heavily pregnant and in labor Lucille Ball to the car, her daughter wants some relationship advice and Henry Fonda steps in and makes one of the grandest speeches:

It’s giving life that counts. Until you’re ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won’t keep it turning. Life isn’t a love-in – it’s the dishes, and the orthodontist, and the shoe repairman, and… ground round instead of roast beef. And I’ll tell you something else: It isn’t going to a bed with a man that proves you’re in love with him; it’s getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful everyday world with him that counts!

And that is L-O-V-E. It’s the day in and the day out, the mundane and the every day. But in all the days in and the days out, the choice to continue getting up with that other person, being with that other person is the element that makes all the difference. That’s the key ingredient, the choice you make to face each day with this person by your side, come what may. 

We’ve weathered many storms and we’ve seen many rainbows in our 20 years of marriage. And I have no doubt that there will be more rainbows to share and storms to weather. That we have chosen to experience them together is what has made all the difference. 

Here’s to the next 20 years. To the storms, to the rainbows and to adventures that we haven’t even dreamed of yet. 

{Photograph: A newly-married couple waves as they drive off with streamers and a ‘Just Married’ sign on the back of their pink convertible | 1964 | by Lambert/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}

HELLO, May

Hello, May! We’re ready for the long weekend that you start us off with and we are very much looking forward to it and the adventures we have planned. We’re ready for more meandering strolls through the fields alongside the sheep and the baby lambs. Looking out for bunnies and foxes and the swans who like to nestle in the fields. 

We’re ready for our days to continue to lengthen and light to linger over the dinner table a little longer each night, one night slowly over taking the next in breadth. 

We’re ready for the anniversary you bring us at the end of this month and how we do not take it for granted that we are lucky enough to continue to grow together. We’re ready for clearer nights where we stargaze and listen to the waves roll in. 

We’re ready to watch the skies turn from midnight black to a deep purple velvet and slowly melt into a buttery pink as we drink our morning coffee with the rising of the sun. We’re ready for the bluebells to continue to bloom along hidden paths and we’re ready for the new season’s harvest that will slowly start arriving at the greengrocer’s. 

We’re ready for all that you hold for us and more. Welcome, May! 

{Bunnies at the Boat Pond, Paige Spearin | Pinned HERE}

HELLO, April!

Hello, April. You’ve arrived in a blustery whirl, on the heel’s of the Easter Bunny and we’re excited that you’re here. 

We’re ready to kick off our Easter School Break with you and the many adventures we have planned. We’re ready to stay up late, watching old movies on our vintage projection screen and munching on goodies out of our Easter basket. 

We’re ready for the light that will continue to grow and fill our days since we “sprung” forward over the weekend. We’re ready for a few more blue skies overhead and crisp, clear days over this spring break. We’re ready for lazy Saturday afternoons spent reading books and working on the crossword puzzle.

We’re ready for spring to continue “springing” and the chance for breakfast on the beach, where we sit, watch the waves roll in and out in their rhythm, drink hot coffee from our thermos and look up just in time to see a seal or two slowly swim by. 

We’re ready for all that you bring April, may you be a month filled with JOY.

{Paulette Goddard | Photoplay Magazine | November 1942 | Pinned HERE}